SMH - 13.10.2011

PRIME agricultural land in the black soil plains in northern NSW, regarded as the best in Australia, is being taken from farming communities by coal seam gas mining companies in a form of ”legalised theft”, a retired NSW Supreme Court judge told a public meeting in Gunnedah yesterday.
Retired Justice Bob Hunter gave an inspiring address, and also made the point that “if something is morally wrong, how can it be legally right?”

The meeting, chaired by talkback radio broadcaster Alan Jones, also heard that the widespread incursion of miners into rural food-producing areas was the most extreme radical experiment in social engineering ever seen in Australia and would result in suicides and acts of terrorism against coal seam gas installations.

Allegations of government corruption were made with Mr Jones publicly reading part of a list he said was obtained under Freedom of Information that showed former ministers and ministerial employers from the governments of Bob Hawke, Bob Carr and Jeff Kennett who now worked as lobbyists for mining companies.